


A Wise Man Once Told Me

by ReapersAngel



Series: That's Family [3]
Category: NCIS
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Magic is Known and Accepted, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Alternate Universe - The Supernatural are Known and Accepted, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Basically this whole fic takes place after Baltimore, Cat Shifter Gibbs, Disclaimer: Credits to NCIS and Supernatural and CBS and CW, Familiar Gibbs, Family, Family Feels, Gen, Gremlin Palmer, Healing Spirit Ducky, Hints at Gibbs/Tony, Jethro Gibbs POV, Kate Todd POV, Magic, Post-Episode: s08 e22 Baltimore, Pre-Familiar Gibbs, Quote: Family Don't End With Blood (Supernatural), Reference to before Kate joined, Reference to before McGee joined, Shifters, Sparrow Shifter Kate, Supernatural quote for title, Team Bonding, Team as Family, Technically in chronological order, Timothy McGee POV, Tony DiNozzo POV, Vampire Abby, Wizard McGee, witch tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:20:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26400280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReapersAngel/pseuds/ReapersAngel
Summary: Or, alternatively titled, Five Times Gibbs and Tony Told Someone About Their Status and One Time They Asked.(Their W-familiar pair status, notthat)
Relationships: Anthony DiNozzo & Jethro Gibbs, Several platonic relationships, The Gibbs Team - Relationship, The MCRT Team, The NCIS Team
Series: That's Family [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1882390
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	A Wise Man Once Told Me

**Author's Note:**

> Some notes I had while writing this (too lazy to write this all out lmao):  
> \- Chronologically in order  
> \- Spells work differently for everyone, so Tony's sphere is unique  
> \- Events of this fic are all Post-Baltimore  
> \- ...not an orb, orbs were sort of hard and felt permanent and were mainly used for whatever they were conjured of, or, if you threw it, acted as a small explosive...  
> \- W-familiar pairs usually live in and cohabit the same space. In many cases, they sleep in the same room, if not in the same bed. Have I mentioned that some W-familiar pairs also enter relationships with each other? I feel like I did, but I'll let you draw your own conclusions about that.  
> \- Newly-made bonds have several - albeit temporary - characteristics of strong bonds: for example, feeling each other's emotions or being able to see/hear each other's thoughts. Which is how Tony feels Gibbs 'jolt', for a better word.

_\- 1 -_

“Hey, Duck,” Gibbs said as the doors to Autopsy whooshed open. “Ah, Jethro!” Ducky, said, elbows deep in a torso, “And I see you’ve brought our newest recruit!”

“Still technically a probie, Doctor Mallard,” Tony said, stopping a half-step behind Gibbs.

“Nonsense, my boy!” Ducky admonished, “You’re a member of the team now! No one’s lasted even as half as long as you have, and besides, Jethro specifically asked for you on his team. I’m sorry I haven’t said this earlier, but welcome to the family!” He waved a gory gloved hand. “As you can see, I would welcome you properly if I could. And I told you dear boy, just call me Ducky.”

“Yeah, Duck,” Gibbs said, “We came down to tell you something.”

“Oh?” Ducky said. Tony wiggled his fingers and felt Gibbs internally - but not externally, because _man_ that poker face was unbreakable - jolt as he knew his eyes lit up.

“Oh!” Ducky exclaimed. He looked between Gibbs and Tony, a smile forming across his face. “Well, I say! Congratulations!”

“Thanks,” Tony said sincerely, grinning. Ducky’s words made him feel warm inside. He glanced at Gibbs, smiling. “It means a lot. Even if Gibbs won’t say so.”

“Of course,” Ducky said, beaming. Gibbs had that stubborn Marine-sniper-esque _I will kill you later_ scowl/glare combo on, but he didn’t say anything. “Have you told Miss Sciuto yet?”

“She’s our next stop,” Gibbs said gruffly.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Ducky said, making shooing motions, “Stop dilly-dallying here and go tell her!”

_\- 2 -_

Not even five minutes later they were stepping off the elevator and across the hallway into Abby’s lab.

“Gibbs, Tony!” She exclaimed happily, turning away from her computers and dialling down her music before they even said anything. Gibbs could sneak up on her no problem, but unless Tony decided to spell his feet quiet Abby was always going to hear him coming miles away with her enhanced-vampire hearing. Obviously, whatever abilities Gibbs had, be it cat-shifter or Marine, they did _not_ transfer over to Tony with the bond.

“So, what brings you down to my humble abode?” She asked, waving her arms to indicate her lab. “I haven’t gotten the DNA off the-”

“Okay, Abs,” Gibbs interrupted. Tony had never been so relieved that Gibbs interrupted someone - even if it _was_ Abby - in his life, because he did _not_ want to hear the end of that sentence. “No, we wanted to tell you something.”

“Oooh, what is it?” Abby said, grinning as she clapped her hands together.

“We’ve bonded,” Tony said.

“ _Really?!_ ” She squealed, “I’m so happy for you guys!” She launched herself at them, squeezing the air out of Tony.

“Yeah, Abs,” He wheezed, “Thanks.”

“Running out of air there, DiNozzo?” Gibbs said dryly, raising an eyebrow.

Tony mock-scowled at him. Gibbs, the bastard, was immune to the negative effects of Abby hugs, and he knew it.

“Just fine, Boss,” He wheezed.

Abby released them, seemingly oblivious to her literal supernatural strength. “You guys told Ducky already, right?”

Tony wondered what others skills Abby had on top of her enhanced hearing, supernatural strength, and ungodly sense of smell. She could probably smell the chilled air and corpse still clinging to him. “Yeah, we did.”

She hummed. “Well, apart from your guys’ amazing news, even if I haven’t gotten the DNA back guess what I found on those bones you guys discovered-”

_\- 3 -_

Kate knew as soon as they stepped onto Air Force One that there was a W-familiar pair onboard. She didn’t know _how_ she knew - she just knew. Maybe it was her senses.

She eyed the ME coming up the plane and the two accompanying them. ‘Ducky’ was a fairly odd name, she thought. Must be a nickname.

Kate wasn’t the betting type, but if she was she would’ve bet her job on the other two being the pair. They orbited around each other with easy familiarity, different from how they moved and responded with Ducky the medical examiner. The older-looking one felt like a shifter to her - no one moved like that unless they had more than one skin - which meant the younger-looking one was the W. Probably.

Those few days passed in a whirlwind, and she left them feeling like the dead bodies were - or had been - the least of her problems, and her biggest problem was her new job, if she took it. She debated the pros and cons with herself for about two minutes, then muttered “What the hell” to herself.

She took the job.

She was filling out paperwork when Tony strided up to her desk and put his elbows on her computer. “So, Kate,” He said.

“What, Tony,” She said, signing another dotted line. There were always too many of those, she thought.

“Just wanted to let you know,” Tony said. He sounded awkward, which made Kate look up. She may not have been with her new team for very long, but she already knew that Tony didn’t really do awkward. He was playful and joking with just the right amount of snark and sarcasm, the perfect person to tease and say the witty comments she hadn’t been able to say to anyone in the Secret Service to.

“Know what?” She replied, confused.

Tony cleared his throat. “Me and Gibbs are bonded.”

She stared at him for a moment. “Yeah, I know,” She finally answered. She looked back down to her desk, at the papers littering its surface. “And it’s ‘Gibbs and I’.”

Tony gaped at her like a fish, sputtering. “You- you _knew_ ? Since _when_?”

“Pretty much as soon as you stepped on Air Force One,” She said absently.

They didn’t get to go any further on that subject because Gibbs had entered the squadroom then. “Gear up,” He said.

They grabbed their bags and guns before rushing to the elevator. Kate almost forgot her new badge.

_\- 4 -_

McGee still couldn’t believe that Agent Gibbs had accepted him onto his team. _The_ Major Crime Response Team! _The_ Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs! Oh man, the rumors he’s heard…

“McGee,” Gibbs’ voice said, perilously close to his ear. He jumped out of his chair to attention.

“Sorry, Boss!” He squeaked, “I wasn’t daydreaming, I swear!”

Gibbs raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t say you were,” He said, amused. “Sit, McGee. I’m not going to bite your head off.”

McGee cautiously did so, keeping his eyes on Gibbs.

“Relax,” Gibbs said, “Just came over here to tell you something.”

McGee cast a momentary glance at the empty desks over Tony and Kate. If Gibbs’ next words were _I’m going to kill you_ or _I’ve murdered someone and you’re going to help me hide the body_ or - possibly worse - _You’re off my team_ , there was no one to help him.

Gibbs looked at him, even more amused. “Me-” He pointed at himself, “-and Tony-” He pointed at Tony’s desk, then looked at McGee like he expected him to have put it together yesterday.

“Tony and I, Boss,” He responded automatically. Then it hit him. “You’re dating Tony?!” He exclaimed.

Gibbs looked heaven-wards to the skylight, then looked at McGee long-sufferingly.

“You’re… bonded?” He asked hopefully. He kept his fingers crossed this time.

“Yes,” Gibbs said, looking and sounding slightly exasperated.

“But…” McGee tentatively ventured. He knew he was probably toeing some edge. “Are you dating Tony too?”

Gibbs threw up his hands and gave him a look that McGee didn’t have the time to dissect because Tony and Kate returned right then from their trip down to Autopsy and Abby’s lab.

“So guess what, Boss-” Tony said in the same instant Kate said, “Abby said she found-” They both stopped and turned to glare at each other with matching ‘ _I’m_ going to tell him first’ looks.

Gibbs waved a hand. “One at a time.”

Right then McGee decided that he wasn’t going to ask Gibbs again if he and Tony were dating for the want of keeping his head attached to his neck.

_\- 5 -_

Palmer, Gibbs decided, was a wild card.

The gremlin mostly stayed down in Autopsy with Ducky, rarely coming up into the squadroom. He had a habit of cracking jokes at the most morbid of times, and they differed from one extreme to the other - hilariously funny or confusedly puzzling. Gibbs barely even interacted with him on a case-to-case basis.

Which made it a little difficult to figure out how to tell him. Before Tony had made the decision to go and tell Kate he had had a hunch that she had already guessed it - he had been right - and before McGee had grown confident enough about his position on the team he had been easy to predict.

Palmer wasn’t. Which was why he was a wild card.

And yet it was still a surprise when, after Gibbs had herded Tony into the elevator and roped him into telling Palmer, he had simply said, “I know.”

Gibbs and Tony had stared at him in disbelief, dumbstruck, as he looked up from where he was scalpel-deep in a chest, smiling. “Doctor Mallard already informed me,” He explained, making another incision. The said ME had taken a day to spend time with his mother. “And besides, it’s sort of obvious, you know?”

“It is?” Tony said stupidly.

“Well, yeah,” Palmer said, waving a bloody latex-covered hand, “I mean, you guys sort of have that together feel. You practically know what the other’s going to say before they say it, or what they do before they do it. You’re both really in tune with each other, and, no offense, but no one touches someone else that much unless they’re bonded or, well, dating.”

Gibbs processed his words in a sort-of haze. _Missed his calling as an agent_ , He thought. He glanced at the spot where Tony’s shoulder touched his own. _On second thought, maybe not._

“Anyways, pass me the scalpel?” Palmer said, gesturing to the metal tray at his side.

Gibbs handed him the scalpel on the tray - so what was he holding if it wasn’t a scalpel? - and herded Tony back out of Autopsy. The doors whooshed closed behind them, and as they stepped into the elevator Tony bumped his shoulder and said, “Told you we didn’t need to tell him.”

Gibbs just snorted and rolled his eyes.

_\- +1 -_

Tony shuffled his feet on the doorstep, nervously biting his lip. Gibbs _had_ said his door was always open, but did he really mean-

Tony started as Gibbs, from somewhere in the house before him, barked, “For god’s sake DiNozzo, just come in already. Door’s always unlocked, I’ve been listening to you think yourself in circles for an hour already.”

Tony gathered his courage and twisted the doorknob. He was surprised when it opened, not because he thought Gibbs might’ve been lying to him, but because _who in their right mind would keep their front door unlocked_. Then again, what lunatic was crazy and insane enough to try and rob a Marine sniper-turned-federal agent. Not Tony, that was for sure.

Not that he was a lunatic, or crazy, or insa-

“DiNozzo!” Gibbs barked again.

He stepped into Gibbs’ house, still feeling unsure. He closed the door behind him and found that the basement door was propped open. He opened the door fully and discovered Gibbs working on a skeletal wood frame.

“A boat?” He guessed. Gibbs looked up at him, a wry smile twisting across his face.

“Yup,” He said, running a hand over a beam.

Tony didn’t progress down the stairs to Gibbs, instead leaning on his forearms on the barebones wooden bars and railings that were keeping him from a nasty downward tumble with a side of bruises and a possible concussion. “She’s a beauty,” He said.

“That she is,” Gibbs said, patting the frame fondly. “Still unfinished though.” He turned to face Tony. “But I gather you didn’t come here to compliment my boat, DiNozzo.”

Tony didn’t bother falling into his carefree persona - he had a feeling Gibbs would see right through it. “Yeah,” He said, “Wanted to ask you something.”

“Fire away,” Gibbs said wryly. Tony watched him as he stepped away from his boat and to the desk in the corner. He emptied two glass Mason jars of their contents - nails, by the sound of it - and splashed a bit of bourbon into both, He carried them over to Tony and nudged his ankle with one. Tony took it and sat down, his long legs dangling over the edge of the small platform and his arms resting on the middle railing plank. They each took a sip. It didn’t do anything to boost Tony’s courage or abate his nervousness.

Gibbs stood next to Tony’s legs, meaning back against the edge of the platform. “Whenever you’re ready,” He said.

Tony took a moment to gather his thoughts into a coherent pile. He really didn’t want this falling all out in one big messy rush.

“I-” He said. He frowned, then took another sip of bourbon. He almost wished he could’ve sent Gibbs a letter to something, because at this rate they’d be here for days. “I wanted to ask you-”

“If I’d like to become your familiar,” Gibbs said. Tony nodded.

“Would’ve brought you a gift,” He muttered, “But didn’t really feel you were the present type.”

Gibbs chuckled. “Amen to that,” He joked, offering Tony the rim of his jar. They clinked glasses and each took another sip. “You guessed right,” He admitted.

Tony hummed, “Thought so.” He set his glass down next to him and spelled a sphere of light into his hand. It was one of those spells anyone traditionally learned, no matter your field of learning or area of expertise. Tony had always felt his resembled a ball of threads - there were always what looked like the ends of threads melting in and out of the main light.

He felt Gibbs watching him curiously as he picked and pulled at and stretched the sphere until it formed a rough circle, threads still falling and rising. He let it hover over his hands for a moment, then flicked his wrist. It gently flew over to Gibbs, where it floated above his head like a halo before settling on his head like a softly glowing, pulsing circlet. For his part, Gibbs just looked both amused and surprised. Tony watched him reach up to touch it, then lower his hand.

“Why?” He asked. Tony knew what he meant.

“Why you?” He said. “I don’t know, actually. You just-” He made a vague gesture with his hand. “-felt right, I guess. I knew it had to be you. Couldn’t be anyone else.”

Gibbs hummed at that. “Didn’t want to ask me what I am before you asked the question?” He said.

Tony shrugged. “You’d tell me eventually,” He said. “Besides, I didn’t want to pry.” He held his hand out, palm up, and spelled another sphere. This was one different though, wobbling and the edges wavering as it shivered. It morphed into a lion, a wolf, a seal, a pair of fangs, a leopard shark, and a tree before Tony closed his hand into a fist, cutting it off before it could settle. Identifiers were another traditional spell everyone learned. They were hard, since you had to maintain them until they settled on the nature of the person you wanted to identify. They were even harder to understand, because they didn’t have a symbol for mundanes and everyone had their own set of symbols. Besides, the symbol for a W was always the same no matter which W they were, and if the Identifier settled on an animal that was both shifter and were, well, they could be either.

“Well, that was good of you,” Gibbs remarked. “I have a rule about that.”

“A rule about what?” Tony asked.

“About good,” Gibbs replied. “You don’t waste it.” He waved a hand. “You’ll learn them all soon enough.”

“Comforting thought,” Tony muttered. The corner of Gibbs’ mouth twitched. “So does that mean you want to-?”

Gibbs laughed. “Yes, I do, Tony. Now, come one, get up. Might as well call that hotel you’re staying at, and stop apartment hunting. I’ve got a spare set of pajamas you can borrow.”

Tony nodded and stood. Of course Gibbs had seen through his flimsy lie that he was staying with a friend in the area. Though, he supposed, now he was.

Gibbs set his glass next to Tony’s and disappeared. Tony might’ve been concerned if he hadn’t reappeared, leaping up onto the platform next to Tony in the form of a silvery-grey cat with the bluest eyes Tony had seen on anything, besides Gibbs the Human. It was the smoothest and most seamless shift he had ever seen, and somehow Gibbs had even kept his circlet of light on his little furry head, only now it had shrunk and moved whenever Gibbs’ ears twitched.

Gibbs twinned around Tony’s legs for a moment - Tony could’ve sworn he purred, but maybe that was the bourbon in his brain - then padded forward, stopping at the door. He looked back up at him, his tail a furred flag, his blue eyes saying _You coming?_

They left the basement, the glass jars of bourbon still sitting on the platform, and when Tony woke up the next morning, he found Gibbs curled on his chest, still asleep, the light circlet still shining bright as a star on his head.

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, did I plan to write this? No, I didn't. It snuck up on me and tortured me until I decided to write it after my vocal lessons in my vocal lesson notebook. Fun Fact: I don't actually write in notebooks, I write looseleaf. Fun Fact Two: The first scene was actually Gibbs and Tony telling Abby. I scrapped all that.
> 
> Also, if you're a part of the SPNFamily, I just learned that JENSEN GETS TO TAKE HOME BABY. JENSEN. BABY. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed, comments and kudoes always appreciated!


End file.
